My latest commentary at Center for a Stateless Society is about the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious and the Drug War.

ATF agents watched as large quantities of weapons were brought out of a Phoenix gun store by a suspected supplier for a Mexican drug cartel. They allowed well over a thousand weapons to pass this way.

One would have to ask if this is just a noteworthy example of bureaucratic incompetence or something more sinister. I’d say it’s a toss-up between the two.

Read the rest: Incompetence at Best

On July 17, 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out after an attempted military coup. On July 19, the people of Catalonia armed themselves against the reactionary and fascist forces and began a social revolution that would later be crushed by its numerous enemies. Murray Bookchin offers a good overview in his essay After Fifty Years: The Spanish Civil War.

My latest commentary is up at Center for a Stateless Society.

When South Sudan became independent, it separated from a genocidal, repressive Sudanese government. But not all is to be celebrated. Political independence is only as valuable as the individual liberty it promotes.

Read the rest: South Sudan and the Sovereignty of the Individual.

Here’s Overkill, in the finest of low-resolution thrash metal videos.

In a class I took for my master’s degree in history at the City College of New York, students were assigned to complete a digital history project. I chose to do a project on the Modern School movement in America, using a WordPress platform. The class is finished, but I can always make changes to the site. Suggestions are welcome.

The project website is: TheModernSchools.wordpress.com.

I could write a detailed post on Independence Day and its meaning. But since I’m busy I’ll just say that fireworks big and small are awesome and that Thomas Paine is still a badass.

My latest Center for a Stateless Society commentary, Domestic Terrorism and the Lulz, is about a government report on anarchists.

LulzSec hackers have released a government report entitled “Anarchist Movement.” This “strategic report” was marked for official use only and was issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a government organ that has previously drawn criticism for warning cops to be suspicious of things like Ron Paul bumper stickers. MIAC is one of several fusion centers, organizations intended to facilitate the sharing of information gathered about people in America between federal, state, and local government agencies.

I was curious to see what law enforcers would have to say about anarchists. While some of the information in the report is factually correct, the quality of the research is not impressive.

It appears that the report under discussion was actually released a while ago but was put into the spotlight again due to Lulzsec.